Page 152 of Road to Redemption

My mother shrieked as the man fell dead at her feet, splattering her white dress with fresh red blood. I hadn’t heard a sound like that come from her lips since she found my father’s body.

I thought once that it had been a cry of agony — that the reason I’d never heard it again was because she didn’t have a heart left to break after my father’s death. But as she screeched over the dead guard, I could hear the sound more clearly now.

It was fear. Her calculations were off. She was losing control.

Desperate to save herself, she made a mad dash up the aisle toward Isaac. If she could cling to the most powerful man in the venue, maybe his protection would save her too.

Not this time.

As she sprinted toward the aisle, I stepped out in front of her, blocking her path. She stumbled to a halt, locked in place by my pleading gaze.

Please don’t do this. For once, let him go.

The shock and guilt only lasted for a second before she tried to sprint past me, willing to flatten me if she had to. But the second had been long enough.

Dom was already charging the altar, pulling the glock from her shoulder holster and taking aim at the guards rushing to protect Isaac. My chest tightened as I watched them reach for their own weapons, terrified that I might lose Dom all over again.

But a rapid series of pops sent them straight to the ground: Leo was lethal with that sniper. While she continued to pick off the guards closest to us, clearing Dom’s path to the altar, Spencer hurdled down from the balcony, pulling a pistol of her own as she hit the first floor.

Wedding guests screamed as she moved through their ranks, crashing into one another as they all tried to find shelter from the gunfire. It was total, utter chaos. And without his men doing the dirty work to guard him, Isaac had no idea what to do.

Dom, on the other hand, had spent years preparing for this exact moment. Before the old man could run, she had her arm around his neck and her pistol firm against his temple. “If I were you, I’d stay very fucking still.”

Isaac was a big man — in another world, he may have been able to put up a decent fight — but Dom wasn’t one to be fucked with.

One wrong move, and she wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet straight through his brain. She knew exactly how to aim that gun to ensure that the rest of his pathetic life was spent in agony.

His hands were tied. So like any smart businessman, he relented, standing compliantly while Leo cleared the rest of the guards from our vicinity. As soon as the last guard fell, she was packing up her gun, hopping down from the balcony, and making a mad dash toward us.

Only once Spencer was close and a path had been cleared did Dom adjust her grip on Isaac. Shifting the gun to the back of his skull, she locked his left arm to her side with one bulging bicep, letting Spencer take a hold of his other side as they dragged him down the hill toward the river.

Leo was quick behind them, using her body to shield me as she guided me down the hill. “Let’s go, Princess.”

I did as she said, sprinting as fast as my legs would carry me in my heels. Bullets whizzed in the distance behind us, but I didn’t look back. Not until I heard my mother’s voice.

“Kiera!” she cried out from the top of the hill. “Don’t do this, please.”

Her voice was like a knife to my gut. The desperation brought tears to my eyes. But I just shook my head. “This is what dad would have wanted.”

As close as we can get to it anyway.

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I ran after my lovers, but I didn’t stop. While my mother sobbed for her dashed schemes, I prepared to carry out a plan of my own.

85

KIERA

As Dom and Spencer dragged Isaac down the steep hill, Leo and I tried to clock any new guards that may have popped into view. But for every one I saw, an Oracle plant would appear to dispatch our enemy.

From their catering aprons, Oracle spies would whip out pistols and knives to continue the fight.

Isaac was nearly tumbling down the slope, being pushed by Dom every few feet to keep him moving.

Tumbling to the ground, Isaac wailed. “I won’t let you take me!”

Spencer holstered her pistol, leaving Leo to cover our flank as she grabbed Isaac’s arm and hauled him up with Dom on the other.

A high pitched whistle zipped past my head, forcing my hands to my ears and my body to duck. “Shit!”